University welcomes new chief investment officer

University Treasurer and Senior Vice President for Finance Craig Carnaroli announced last week that Kristin Gilbertson has been named Penn's new chief investment officer.

Gilbertson -- who comes to Penn from Stanford University -- will assume her new position on August 15.

Prior to working at Stanford, Gilbertson spent 10 years at the World Bank, where her positions included principal investment officer and strategist in the Investment Management Department.

"Penn is just such a top school and a really premier endowment," Gilbertson said. "It's a tremendous opportunity."

Carnaroli and others began interviewing search firms in December after former Chief Investment Officer Landis Zimmerman announced in November that he would vacate his position in Feb. 2004.

As chief investment officer, Gilbertson will be responsible for managing the University's $3.9 billion endowment. Though Stanford's endowment is over twice the size of Penn's -- with $9.8 billion in total assets --Gilbertson explained that the endowments present similar challenges. However, Penn's smaller-sized endowment offers a competitive advantage in the investment marketplace, since there is often a limit on the amount one institution can invest in a particular fund, Gilbertson said.

"If I can only get a small piece of the best funds, then it's helpful if I'm smaller," Gilbertson said. "One hundred million dollars for Penn goes a lot farther than $100 million for Stanford."

Along with Carnaroli, Gilbertson will work closely with University Trustee Howard Marks -- chair of the Board of Trustees' investment committee -- who will work with Gilbertson as she develops her investment strategy for Penn's endowment.

"Every investment manager has his or her own biases, philosophies, favorite approaches, favorite managers," Marks said. "We did not hire Kristin to have a continuation of the status quo or specifically to make changes -- we want to hear her proposals."

Marks also said that as chief investment officer, Gilbertson would have an opportunity to "put her personal stamp on the endowment."

Gilbertson agreed that what helped attract her to Penn was the University's relatively new investment office.

"What's interesting and unusual for Penn ... is that the investment office is relatively new," Gilbertson said. The office, organized in 1998, is still in the process of organizing itself and developing the University's portfolio. It is a formative process on which Gilbertson hopes to have a lasting impact.

Though the Investment Office at Penn is relatively new, Gilbertson comes to Penn under conditions much more favorable than Zimmerman enjoyed when he first arrived.

"When Landis arrived ... I would describe it as a situation that needed work, that needed development of structure, process staffing and so forth," Marks said. "We've had excellent performance for the last four calendar years, so she doesn't have challenges in the sense of fixing things that are broken."

"We've come a long way in the last seven or eight years, thanks in good part to Landis and his contributions," Marks added. "The goal is to continue to have outstanding results, which is never easy in the investment world -- and as the environment changes, we must change with it."

Carnaroli said Gilbertson will bring a wealth of experience to help achieve this goal.

She will be "picking which funds and managers Penn is going to invest their endowment with," Carnaroli said. "She has a very strong track record in doing it very wisely and very intelligently, which is part of the reason we're attracted to her."

Gilbertson received her B.A. in Economics from Harvard University in 1987 and an MBA from Stanford in 1992.

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